Flying Robotic Swarms To Create Wi-Fi Clouds

Using flying micro-robots grouped in a swarm, wireless networks can be instantly set up at places all over the globe. After serious catastrophes such as earthquakes and floods, communication infrastructure is often demolished, which complicates the work of emergency teams dramatically. This invention can help emergency teams to communicate quickly in response to disasters. Explains SciDev:

“In the aftermath of earthquakes and other disasters, when communications infrastructure is damaged or overloaded, the first thing rescue teams do is set up temporary radio or mobile communication networks to coordinate the search for survivors. But these networks have limited data transmission capacity, take time and specialists to establish, and can suffer interference from existing commercial networks.”

The micro-robotic swarm could overcome these limitations. It would hover above disaster areas with each robot in the swarm emitting a wireless signal to enable Wi-Fi-filtered communication between rescuers, says PSFK.

“To distribute the vehicles effectively above a designated zone the research team took inspiration from the way ants leave chemical trails to guide colonies to sources of food. Some of the vehicles hover in small circles linked to the location of rescuers and the other vehicles navigate around these markers. Each vehicle is made from lightweight, flexible polypropylene plastic, weighs less than half a kilogram and has a wing span of 80 centimeters. A battery-powered motor enables each vehicle to fly for up to half an hour before visiting a recharging station.”

This invention is not only interesting for disastrous situations, but translated to our day-to-day situations, it would also work as a service for mega events. Temporary gatherings of thousands of people all trying to call and text would benefit enormously from a proper wireless network. Besides that, it’s also very entertaining to see this buzzing swarm of micro-robots in the air as an extra attraction. Check this video and this video to learn more about the technology behind the flying robots.

In conflict situations such as in Libya, the ‘allied forces’ could use a robotic swarm to empower the insurgents with the ability to communicate properly. Imagine a swarm circling above the Tahrir Square in Cairo to enable Facebook and Twitter communication as soon as Mubarak has cut off Internet. The makers will need three more years to improve the invention and make it stable for practical use, as mentioned above. A more simple, single-robot system for crop and biodiversity monitoring has already been rolled out by a spin-off company, SenseFly.

Buying second hand stuff, especially at websites like eBay, has some disadvantages. For instance, you cannot try or feel the product you plan to buy beforehand. Albert Richters, a student at the Delft University of Technology, invented an ‘eBay Pavilion’ to be built in Rotterdam.

Haarlem-based design agency Studio Heldergroen have initiated a genius space-saving solution. Offices are no longer restricted for work, but can now be transformed into fitness studios, dining areas and even discos.

How the hell can we spice up a gray and boring business district? It’s one of Amsterdam’s main concerns. The so-called Zuidas, the city’s financial center under construction, is suffering from the current economic situation and bad urban planning. Bored bankers and the few posh people living in the too expensive penthouses have proven not…

An overwhelming history of sky design does not exist. Ancient Romans and Greeks never had the technical possibilities to really redesign the big space around us. As modern society we have been designing more or less anything over the past few decades, and now we take it to the next level: the impossible. How to design the sky? Some great and inspiring initiatives that aim to create a new experience of the ‘boring’ sky take place last years. Are we collectively sick of the blue sky decorated with natural, white clouds? Do we prefer the everlasting rainbow, northern light forever, artificial green clouds or pixel swarms as displays?